Unlocking the Archive: Bloom-Carroll students meet with pen pal soldier

Lancaster Eagle-Gazette

This week's archive photo comes from May 2004.

Fifth-graders Caitlyn Black, left, Elizabeth Wiessinger, and Alexandra Rice, all 11, examine a piece of Iraqi currency once worth 25 Dinars. Army Sgt. Bryan Davis, 40, of Baltimore, Ohio, shared it with to 4th and 5th-graders, at Bloom Elementary School, in Lithopolis, Ohio, on Tuesday, May 25, 2004. He recently returned from Kuwait where was serving with the 186th Engineers detachment of the 16th Brigade under the 3rd Army. During his 16 months overseas, he received dozens of personalized letters from the students.

Sgt. Bryan Davis visited with fifth-grade students at Bloom-Elementary School in Lithopolis.

Davis had been receiving regular letters and cards from the students while he was stationed in Iraq.

"I was in touch with my wife, Julie, and my family, but was nice talking with someone from outside of the family. They gave me a different perspective on what was going on back home," Davis said in a May 26, 2004, Eagle-Gazette article.

He visited fifth-graders in Ellie Bloom's and Deanna Long's classes.

Davis was assigned with the 186th Engineer Detachment under the 3rd Army, and had been in Kuwait since May 13, 2003.

He showed the students pictures he took in Kuwait and shared his experiences with them.

If you are reading this in the print edition, go online to www.LancasterEagleGazettecom for more photos from previous weeks.

Teacher Carol Black, left, and 4th-grade students Kaylee Bickerstaff, 10, and Katelynn Ising, 10, look at pictures taken by Army Sgt. Bryan Davis, 40, of Baltimore, Ohio, right, as he visits Bloom Elementary School, in Lithopolis, Ohio, on Tuesday, May 25, 2004. Davis recently returned from Kuwait where he was serving with the 186th Engineers detachment of the 16th Brigade under the 3rd Army. During his 16 months overseas, he received dozens of personalized letters from the students. (

If you have suggestions of what you would like to see from our archive, let us know at tshipley@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Unlocking the Archive: Bloom-Carroll students meet with pen pal soldier

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